through this website, AAFSW receives a small percentage to help fund out activities and services. AAFSW is also affiliated with 
State Department Resources for Foreign Service Families
Congratulations to FLO on its 25th Anniversary!
This article was featured in the March, 2003 issue of Global Link, AAFSW's print newsletter.
March 1st marked the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Family Liaison Office (FLO) in the Department of State. For a quarter of a century, the FLO has shouldered the increasingly complicated responsibility for supporting both the welfare of our Foreign Service community and by extension, the mission of the Department of State. For those of us with a certain seniority, we can remember life before FLO and can only marvel at what the office has become. For those who have entered the Foreign Service more recently, they assume that the FLO has always existed and cannot comprehend that in the beginning, there was tremendous opposition to the FLO's establishment.
Establishment of the FLO:
By now the role of the AAFSW in establishing the FLO is well known. In 1976, the FORUM of the AAFSW was formed to be the issues-oriented group within the organization. Shortly after its formation, it distributed some 6,000 questionnaires to employees and family members of State, USAID and the then-existent USIA and ACDA, asking people to comment on their concerns about life in the Foreign Service. There was a good return on the questionnaires, which the FORUM then analyzed. This analysis became the "Report on the Concerns of Foreign Service Spouses and Families," which was presented to the late Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, in March of 1977. The report included 10 recommendations of which the second was the establishment of the Family Liaison Office. In his reply to the second proposal, the Secretary wrote: "The concept is a good one and I support it. It responds to a real need for a channel of communication between individual families and the Service. I believe we should establish FLO…with all deliberate speed." Thus, within one year of presenting the report, FLO opened its doors in March of 1978.
In bureaucratic terms, one year from proposal to establishment is astonishing speed. In fact, I know of no other example in which dedicated volunteers, in this case members of the AAFSW FORUM, succeeded in inserting an entirely new function, the Family Liaison Office, within a government bureaucracy. It seems fair to say that this accomplishment is unique. Once the Office had actually opened, the next and on-going challenge was to establish its legitimacy. From the start, the Office encountered not only bureaucratic apathy but also outright hostility. However, as the requests for information and support came to us in ever-increasing numbers, it very soon became apparent that the FLO was an idea whose time had come. Already towards the end of the second year, the late Ben Read, then Under Secretary for Management, wrote: "The Liaison Office has now become such an accepted part of our overall operations…that it is hard to realize that you have been operating for less than two years."
Early Challenges:
Even if no organization is perfect, it seems accurate to say that the establishment and development of the Family Liaison Office are a real success story in spite of some periods when its continued existence was seriously menaced. In the late '80s, the FLO survived attempts to completely eliminate or at least substantially reduce the program for budgetary reasons. At another time, the AAFSW went to the Hill to successfully fight a bureaucratic battle which would have placed the Office farther down in the STATE bureaucracy with greatly reduced access to Senior Management.
The FLO/CLO "Mentality":
From the start, what I can only call the FLO/CLO mentality emerged and has remained at the core of the Office's many functions. This mentality is characterized by: (1) the will to safeguard and improve the quality of life for us all; (2) the patience to advocate for change no matter how tedious; (3) the concern to provide people with individual non-bureaucratic support when they need it; and (4) a sense of outrage in the face of situations, regulations, laws, policies and practices that are unacceptable and that need to be changed.
FLO Then:
It is striking to note that even in the beginning, most of the current FLO's specialized functions existed in embryonic form. From opening day, the staff of two (the Director and Deputy Director) responded to questions about education and employment. They worked to establish pilot FLOs overseas (as the CLOs were first called) and to provide support for the new offices including an early Airgram that went out on the subject of "FLO Guidelines" suggesting what the new offices might do. When the FLO dealt with the Department's first big evacuation (some 400 evacuees from Islamabad ), it also started to define the Department's role in such situations. Providing information and support for divorced Foreign Service spouses was another function. In this connection, the FLO also had occasion to deal with immigration officials. In addition, it produced a number of widely used documents including the "FLO Update" (an early version of the "FLO Focus" ) and the "Washington Assignment Notebook." Almost immediately, the staff was expanded to include an experienced senior Foreign Service secretary. An Education Officer and an Employment Officer were soon added. After the first Deputy Director left the Office and became the FLO/CLO in Bonn, she and the FLO Director convened the first CLO Conference in Bonn for the CLOs from a number of Iron Curtain countries. Subsequently, the former Deputy Director traveled from Bonn to six posts for what amounted to an early and much simpler version of CLO training.
FLO Now:
From these very modest beginnings, the FLO has become a veritable State Department institution that is recognized by many other government agencies for the crucial support it provides for our Foreign Service community both here and overseas. From the original staff of two, the Director and Deputy Director now manage a staff of 12 plus temporary personnel such as the Abidjan and Jakarta CLOs, who have been evacuated and who are working from the FLO to help their respective evacuated communities. An evacuated computer specialist is also providing additional expertise at a very busy time. The Education Officer has become the Education and Youth Officer. The family member employment portfolio has increased dramatically. There are now an Employment Program Coordinator, a Special Employment Projects Coordinator and an Employment Program Specialist. A Program Assistant also works full-time on employment issues.
The electronic age has created possibilities undreamed of earlier and the FLO utilizes the services of one full-time staff member as Publications Coordinator. To provide specialized assistance to people experiencing a personal or post crisis, the Support Services Officer was designated to deal especially with evacuations and divorce. In response to the problems which foreign-born spouses were experiencing when they applied for citizenship, the Naturalization Program Specialist was added to the staff.
Finally, to manage the worldwide CLO program, a CLO Support Officer was created. From the initial 15 pilot CLOs, the number has risen to an incredible 173. They are staffed by 240 CLOs, Co-CLOs, Assistant CLOs and "Faux" CLOs who are sometimes FSNs who serve when there is no family member. A second Program Assistant provides information and assistance in the areas of support services, evacuations and education and youth. There is also an Executive Assistant who supports the Director and Deputy Director and serves as Office Manager. And finally, there is the Front Desk Receptionist who functions as a Program Assistant as needed. Even with such an expanded staff, the FLO is often taxed to the maximum as the Office endeavors to continue its advocacy agenda, manage numerous programs, supply individualized help and fulfill the administrative requirements of working in a bureaucracy.
Two Useful Lessons:
It is instructive to examine the role of the AAFSW as an independent entity. The FLO would probably never have been created from within the bureaucracy which is by nature conservative and which resists change. Twenty-five years ago it was perhaps even more conservative and resistant to change than it is now. It took an outside and independent organization such as the AAFSW to give the bureaucracy a nudge and to act as a catalyst for change. Of course, there were other factors which just happened to work in everyone's favor-what the first FLO Director described as "…a felicitous constellation of the right people working together at the right time." In any event, I hope that the AAFSW will continue to use the "independence advantage" constructively.
The second useful lesson is that if the AAFSW believes that something is worth doing, it should always take a stand even if the beginnings are on a small scale. The FLO began modestly enough through the efforts of a group of determined, well-informed and committed volunteers. What it is today is the result of many, many people working together and building on the efforts of those who preceded them in the office.
The AAFSW is delighted to see what an irreplaceable institution the FLO has become.
Congratulations on the occasion of your 25th anniversary!
We extend our gratitude and our admiration to the FLO and to the CLOs for the immeasurable support they have provided through the years for the well-being of our Foreign Service community.
Mette Beecroft
AAFSW President Emerita
Editor's Note: Mette was the first Deputy Director of the Family Liaison Office. In addition to serving on the AAFSW Board, she also is a State Department employee in the Division of Travel and Transportation.